IMS: US medicine spending shows a rare dip in 2012

Spending on prescription medicines in the U.S. fell for the first time in decades last year, slipping as cash-strapped consumers continued to cut back on use of health-care services.

Patients also benefited from a surge of new, inexpensive generic versions of widely used drugs for chronic conditions like high cholesterol, according to a new report.

Total spending on medications dipped 1 percent, to $325.8 billion last year from $329.2 billion in 2011. Likewise, average spending per person on medicines fell by $33, to $898 last year, according to the report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.

“That’s the first time IMS has measured a decline in the 58 years we’ve been monitoring drugs,” Michael Kleinrock, director of research development at the institute, told The Associated Press.

Kleinrock said that while total drug spending fell by just 1 percent, the decline was 3.5 percent after accounting for population growth and economic expansion.

Factors behind last year’s drop in drug spending include positive trends such as more use of cheap generic pills and flukes such as a fairly mild cold and flu season in early 2012. But there also was a big negative: People rationing their own health care.

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